Program Description
Systematic reviews (SR) are increasingly used to inform clinical and public health practice. SR seeks to collate all evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to address a specific research question. This 3-day program will present an overview of the explicit and systematic methods used in SR to minimize bias. Together we will learn step by step how to actually perform, report, and critically appraise SR. We will focus primarily on methods for SR of randomized trials and will discuss how to extend them to SR of observational studies. Participants are encouraged to register for our companion 2-day program on meta-analysis.
Competencies
Participants will learn to:
- Identify the critical steps when planning a systematic review;
- Plan a search strategy to identify studies in published and grey literature and carry it out;
- Select studies and collect data;
- Assess the risk of bias in selected studies and address reporting bias;
- Report and discuss the results of systematic reviews
Intended Audience
Clinicians, researchers, public health specialists and other health care professionals who want to perform and/or evaluate systematic reviews
Required knowledge/pre-requisites
Basic knowledge of study designs. Participants must bring a laptop.
Discounts available—visit our FAQs page to learn more.
Low-Cost Housing is also available—learn more here.
Additional Information
Detailed description of sessions
Session 1: Introduction to conducting systematic reviews
Learning objectives
- Understand what systematic reviews are, why they are useful
- Identify the key steps of the systematic review process
- Apply the PICO approach to define the research question
- Be able to register a systematic review on PROSPERO
- Search for previous systematic reviews on a given topic
- Introduction to RevMan software
Session 2: Searching for studies
Learning objectives:
- List bibliographical databases and other sources for unpublished information
- Create a search strategy for PUBMED, EMBASE, and CENTRAL
- Understand the various forms of reporting bias
- Report the search process into RevMan
Session 3: Selecting trials and collecting data
Learning objectives:
- Identify screening software packages
- How to select trials for inclusion
- How to collect systematically different data types
- Enter data into RevMan
Session 4: Addressing risk of bias
Learning objectives:
- Understand the Cochrane Risk of bias tool for randomized trials
- Assess the risk of bias within trials
- Report the risk of bias assessment into RevMan
Session 5: Introduction to data analysis
Learning objectives:
- Understand the principles of fixed-effect and random-effects models
- Measure between-trial heterogeneity
- Interpret funnel plots
- Incorporate risk of bias assessments into synthesis
- Perform basic data analysis with RevMan
Session 6: Critical appraisal of systematic reviews
Learning objectives:
- Understand reporting guidelines for systematic reviews
- Identify pitfalls and strengths in published systematic reviews with meta-analyses
I was not expecting to learn as much as I did. I really enjoyed how much information we were able to cover
